Arctic Cooling Duo: Alpine 7 & Freezer 7 Pro Attack Value
by Wesley Fink on January 29, 2008 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Noise Levels
For many enthusiasts upgrading cooling the goal is maximum stable overclock, and they will live with the inconvenience of a louder system. For other users silence is the most important factor, and these users will forgo maximum overclocking if that increases system noise levels. Those who expect silence to be the domain of high-priced cooling solutions are in for a very pleasant surprise with both these Arctic Cooling solutions. It is unusual to see this much attention paid to noise reduction in value coolers, but the use of elastomeric bushings and low noise bearings show that Arctic Cooling takes noise reduction very seriously. Do these features work?
The Arctic 7 (with PWM) and the Freezer 7 Pro turn out to be two of the quietest coolers we have tested so far in our new cooling test bed. All four test results are at the floor of our system noise, and the new test system noise floor is equivalent to a suburban bedroom at night in noise level.
Both Alpine coolers remain silent, even when pushed hard with load testing and overclocking, which increases fan speeds. It is rare to see such low noise levels on any cooling fan, but it is particularly impressive in coolers designed to sell for less than $25.
Neither of these sub-$25 coolers will really challenge the top of our overclocking performance results, but in their effective range - which is wider than you might expect - both coolers are extremely quiet. The frameless fan, low noise bearings, and elastomeric fan mounts are obviously doing their job very well.
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yacoub - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
It's a shame it took this long for you guys to review the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, which is a staple of the cheap-but-effective heatsink setups for overclockers. Glad to see it performed rather well. =)Archon29 - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
I just built a new PC with 2 front intake fans, one rear exhaust fan, and the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. My E4500 hits 40c at idle, 59c at load, and 63c with a 600 Mhz overclock. Not sure if my CPU reports the temp high (I've heard of this), I got a dud with the Freezer 7, or I applied my thermal paste wrong, but it sucks seeing other people get these kinds of results. I'm almost tempted to see what I would get with the stock fan but that would be a lot of trouble.orenlevy - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
is closed by dust.the alpine 7 resist and keep working long after many other stop dissapating heat.
i will be glad that when you benching somthing you will chek it for the long run. as im living in israel (dusty) i have lot of experience. oren
swaaye - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
I had a Freezer 64 Pro on an Opteron Dual Core about 2 years ago. It was pretty good and cheap, but the fan gets loud when it's at full speed. When I got my Core 2 Duo, I switched to Scythe Ninja Plus because it cools a lot better while being basically silent and only a bit more expensive.I'm all about effective + quiet these days and I wouldn't go back to that Freezer unless it was a CPU that didn't need much cooling power.
9nails - Wednesday, January 30, 2008 - link
I've had a Freezer-7 on a Core 2 Duo 3.0 Ghz E6850. I bought it based on good feedback at NewEgg in November. I wanted a cooler that was quiet, better at cooling than stock, and one that could extend the life of my CPU. I'm glad to say that the Freezer-7 has met all my expectations. It's been rock solid and something which I could easily recommend.limo wreck - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
What did you use to control the speed of the fan during the tests? Asus' QFan? Speedfan?Would you know what the speed was during idle and under load? The reason I ask is because I have an AC Freezer 7 Pro and although it is somewhat quiet, I definitely wouldn't call it "near silent" like you did in the article.
gorobei - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
while the fan may not be equivalent to the AC, the design is roughly the same. Given the new testbed and temp monitor, the hyperTX2 should be worth a second look.poohbear - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
gotta give credit to arctic cooling. Their vga coolers are top notch: reasonably priced (compared to the $50 option from Thermalright and zalman) and virtually silent. seems they replicated this for their cpu coolers. hope to see more products from these guys in the future.Etern205 - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
Is there by any chance in a future article that you guys do a test to see how well are the new Intel stock coolers?And excellent review.
Etern205 - Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - link
I mean the stock cooler for the Extreme edition cpus.Like this one